Betty was quite homely (which her mother never let her forget) and this consciousness of her unattractiveness coupled with her aching desire for romance seared her soul from childhood.

Ugly Betty aside, most of Wiker’s arguments are best left undigested (you can read the full list with summaries of Wiker’s beefs here), but the book is instructive in another way: namely, in how a catchy title and a fail-safe conceit—the literary list—can generate highly entertaining chatter on the Web. A common refrain was put most succinctly by a reader on Papercuts: “Hmm something’s missing…hmmm…oh, the Bible!” In a discussion forum on Fark, there were cries for the works of Ayn Rand, though the reason for inclusion was disputed. One reader wrote of “Atlas Shrugged,” “No matter what you think of Rand’s philosophy, it’s virtually certain you’ll agree that that book was, at best, a major chore to read.” The science blog Pharyngula opined that Alfred Kinsey had been placed on the list because he makes Wiker “squirmy in his pants,” and wondered whether that “qualifies as screwing up the world.” Other suggested additions include the “Sex and the City” series, “Death of a Salesman,” and Rick Steves’s “Europe Through the Back Door.” Our favorite, though, is posted on Fark, by a reader who chooses the children’s classic “Everyone Poops,” by Taro Gomi, because “It builds unnecessary expectations.”—Macy Halford